The Decatur Police Department sends along this announcement from Smart 911…

DECATUR, Ga., April 15, 2015 – April is National 9-1-1 Education Month and the second full week is traditionally celebrated as National Public Safety Telecommunications Week. This year a local dispatcher from the City of Decatur is receiving national acclaim. Jeremy Pickett was voted the Southeast Regional Honoree in the 4th annual Smart Telecommuncator Awards.

The Smart Telecommunicator Awards aims to recognize and reward 9-1-1 telecommunicators for leadership, performance, compassion for callers, ability to inspire co-workers and overall contributions to their Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). Last month 9-1-1 call-takers and dispatchers (telecommunicators) across the U.S. were nominated by peers and individuals, and forty finalist entries were then selected for an online public vote. After thousands weighed-in, Pickett was named the top winner for his region.

According to the nomination submitted, Pickett is a model employee who provides relief and reassurance not only to the community, but to the police officers and fire fighters when they learn he is the 911 dispatcher handling a call. From providing emergency crews information before they even ask, to using Smart911 profiles to provide access notes, to helping to respond accordingly to an individual with autism, he is trusted and respected by his peers. The Smart Telecommunicator Awards are conducted by Smart911, the acclaimed national public safety service, in partnership with the Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies (iCERT) and the Denise Amber Lee Foundation.

One national winner and three other regional honorees were also announced. To read about the other winners, please visit: www.smart911.com/sta In addition to the Smart Telecommunicator Award, Smart911 will present a donation of $500 to each winner’s charity of choice and $1,000 to the national winner’s charity. Pickett has selected the Wounded Warrior Project.

The City of Decatur just sent out an announcement saying that they’ve retired the Code Red emergency alert system in favor of enhanced services from Smart 911. Residents now must take action and opt-in to enhanced Smart 911 features in order to continue to receive emergency alerts from the city. More below…

This week, the City of Decatur transitioned to an enhanced Smart911 system to make communication between residents and public safety agencies easier and more convenient. In addition to providing details about their household to 9-1-1 dispatchers on emergency calls, Smart911 now gives users the option to opt-in to receive emergency and general notifications from the city. This Smart911 option replaces the CodeRed emergency and weather notifications. Since the City of Decatur is no longer using the CodeRed system, all CodeRed users who wish to continue to receive emergency alerts from the city should create a private and secure Safety Profile at www.Smart911.com. Anyone already registered with a Safety Profile at Smart911.com can simply log into their account to opt-in to the new enhanced features.

So, I’ve realized we haven’t spent much, if any, time looking into the results of the always interesting Decatur Citizen Survey.

The survey is conducted once every two years and was most recently released in September 2014. And there are always some interesting little tidbits in there worth highlighting.

For starters, here’s an interesting bar chart showing resident feedback of the city’s various “technology services”.

Smart 911 – a free service that allows residents and business owners to create a safety profile of vital personal and household data, which is available to emergency “call takers” immediately – and the CodeRed Emergency Notification System – a phone notification system for emergency situations – ranked #1 and #2 in residents’ opinions. (Click the links above to sign up for and learn more about these programs.)

The city commission approved the measure meaning that residents will soon be able to go to Smart911.com and enter health and strategic information about yourself, your family members, and your property that would be available to first responders if you ever called 911 inside the City of Decatur.

Above you’ll find a brief synopsis from a local newscast from elsewhere about the service.

For those interested, I’m sure the city will let us know when the service is open to Decatur residents.